Tigran Petrosian (1929–1984): playing style, games and openings

9th World Champion, 1963–1969. Master of prophylaxis: he stopped the opponent's plans before they started and used positional exchange sacrifices to kill counterplay.

1929–1984 · Known for: Prophylaxis · 1,892 games in the collection

Explore Tigran Petrosian's games in the analyzer Compare with your own games

Playing style: Solid / prophylactic

Keeps the king safe, avoids early adventures and is hard to beat, at the cost of more draws.

Aggression 17 / 100

Risk-taking 4 / 100

Endgame bias 10 / 100

Solidity 76 / 100

Simplification 6 / 100

These scores come from the 1,886 games used for the style profile (classical-length games), measured the same way the analyzer measures your own games.

Results

Tigran Petrosian scored 662 wins, 1075 draws and 149 losses (64% score) in 1886 games.

With White: 421 wins, 485 draws and 42 losses (70% score) in 948 games.
With Black: 241 wins, 590 draws and 107 losses (57% score) in 938 games.

Favourite openings

As White

Queen's Gambit Declined: 150 games, 66% score
King's Indian Defense: 126 games, 77% score
English Opening: 126 games, 69% score
Nimzo-Indian Defense: 84 games, 70% score
Queen's Indian Defense: 75 games, 60% score
Queen's Pawn Game: 55 games, 73% score

As Black

Sicilian Defense: 151 games, 63% score
French Defense: 137 games, 59% score
King's Indian Defense: 95 games, 62% score
Caro-Kann Defense: 83 games, 52% score
English Opening: 60 games, 57% score
Nimzo-Indian Defense: 52 games, 54% score

A famous game

1966 World Championship win (Spassky, Boris V vs Petrosian, Tigran V, 0-1, 1966) — replay it move by move and see Stockfish's verdict.